Hi,
I have some off and on pain where spine meets the neck or so it feels. It is not a bad pain but it is annoying. Been like this for about 5 days. Moving neck or anything else has no effect. Kind of feels like maybe a pinched nerve. In fact I was playing soccer tuesday and didnt feel any pain at all. I am 37 in good health, 5.9, about 175lbs. Play competitive soccer twice a week.
One other things I want to add is that if I turn my head side to side and if its very quiet I can hear some something rubbing together but this has been for as long as I remember and it is not in the same place as the pain.

Your question is a very good one and I will work on providing you with some good information and recommendations regarding what is going on.

The area of your neck which you refer to is a very common area for development of musculoskeletal pain. The most probable cause of this is a milder degree of inflammation. It is likely that you have a tiny bit of arthritis which is contributed to your symptoms. With arthritis in there can be flares at times which cause a significant degree of symptoms. This will likely not be a progressive phenomenon and it should resolve slowly with time.

In a patient as young and as physically fit as yourself, the most likely contributing factor would be some degree of exertion which triggered the flayer of arthritis.

As for recommendations, I think the best thing for you to do would be to start taking a mild over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medication. I usually recommend ibuprofen 600 mg three times per day for 10 days. I think this with a bit of extra rest will slowly result in a resolution of your symptoms. I am not concerned that this is the beginning of any type of progressive process for you.

I thank you again for submitting your question. I hope you found my response to be helpful and informative. If you have any additional concerns I would be happy to address them.